Whilst I was proud to receive a University of South Australia Alumni Award recently, I still always wonder why. The inceasing level of activism, and the voluntary work and research (sometimes even paid!) that I have been doing since being diagnosed with a rare young onset dementia 13 years ago, and since co-founding Dementia Allaince…
Thank you Brené Brown, for this timely reminder that it’s not just ok to stand up for what we believe in, to say the unsaid, it’s worth doing even if we are alone. It is sometimes lonely daring to bring light to stuff that’s been pushed into or kept in the shadows, especially when the…
By highlighting dementia as one of the many health conditions causing disabilities, I am joining the more than 1 billion people with disability campaigning for change! It is your chance to make history; to help make a lasting change for 1 billion persons with disabilities worldwide, and I invite you to join the #WeThe15 campaign.…
Whilst not specifically about Brain Health Awareness, I’m sharing a recent interview, which is 100% relevant to hope. I was delighted to be interviewed for the Aged Care Enrichment Podcast series, brought to us by SilVR Adventures and with their host Ash de Neef. It’s available wherever you get your podcasts from ⬇️ 𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻, 𝗦𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 ⬇️…
Last week, I was pleased to be invited by the University of South Australia Chancellor Pauline Carr to attend the Adelaide International Women’s Day Breakfast, #IWD2021 highlighting women’s leadership this year. The MC was the wonderful Sonya Feldhoff from ABC Radio Adelaide, and guest speakers included Senator the Hon Penny Wong, Leader of the Opposition…
This week has me deeply disturbed, angry, sad and yesterday, even tearful about quite a few things, none of which are personal matters, even though some who read this will already know I do have a few serious personal issues to be worried about at the moment too! But, onto one of the reasons I…
WANDERING the WARDS An Ethnography of Hospital Care and its Consequences for People Living with Dementia By Katie Featherstone and Andy Northcott This is an interesting and useful book, based on the wanderings of the authors and staff, NOT the patients with dementia in hospitals! This book is especially timely in light of the release…
Over the last 20 something years, we have had no less than 21 formal reports or inquiries onto the challenges we have been facing in Australia of poor care in aged care, to the point, these facilities should not have the word ‘care’ in their names! Today, this culminates in the final report of the…
Today is the final day of Dementia Awareness Month 2020, and it has been a marathon of sorts posting daily blogs, although it has been helpful having hundreds in my draft folder. It now takes me a long time to read, think things through, and even longer after than to write coherently. So, as I…
I’ve written many time about BPSD or ‘challenging behaviours’ as well as what I have termed BPSC-19, but the comparison may not be obvious to everyone. Hence, for day 27 of Dementia Awareness Month in 2020, I decided to list the ‘symptons’ of each here. If we check out the two lists we could be…
An article published in April 2019 Language paradigms when behaviour changes with dementia: #BanBPSD, rather ironically helps explain to me why we need to ban the contruct known as the Behavioural and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD), and not just change the name. I’m doubtful that was the intention of the authors… Over the last…
You may not believe it, or see it, but people with dementia are still being Prescribed Disengagement®, and only supported to die, rather than to live positively. You may not believe it, but if you have a stroke, you will recieve rehabilitation, whereas if you are diagnosed with dementia, you won’t. You may not believe…
Once again, I have committed to post a daily blog in September, my feeble attempt at a contribution to Dementia Awareness Month, even though I am under no illusions of the value of doing so. Todays is about not giving up. Those of you who have read my blogs this month will know I have…
Recently I was interviewed by Bec Hogan, who is the Deputy Chair of 3C Management and is creating a social change project with the ‘Dementia Heroes Month’ Initiative. Bec is an Aged Care Consultant in Consumer Engagement Strategy & Creative Digital Content, and this series of podcasts runs throughout September, highlighting people she refers to…
Yesterday Ms. Ita Buttrose, the current Chair of the ABC in Australia, and an Ambassador and a past President of Dementia Australia gave a key note presentation at a Symposium hosted by DA. In the Q&A after her speech, she responded to one mildly defensive comment that there are ‘good aged care providers’, by saying…
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